We Really Are Going to Have to Take Plastic Bottles Back to the Shops

There almost certainly and most probably in all likelihood WILL be a bottle return deposit scheme launched in England in the near future, as the government's said a return system for all "single use drinks containers" is nearly definitely coming.

This is subject to consultation, though, it also says, so there's a small chance someone with a lot of welly and influence at Coca-Cola could derail the introduction of a bottle return plan. However, the government seems to be all for making people in England pay more for single use containers -- whether made from plastic, glass or metal -- in order to claim that money back upon politely returning the empties for recycling or, in some council areas, incinerating and burying anyway.

The consultation is looking at the mechanics of operating the scheme, plus the government says it's talking to/with/at the devolved administrations of Scotland and Wales to perhaps create a unified UK-wide deposit return option, rather than one that's different in England.

We now have to paste in something Michael Gove said, sadly, as he's taking credit for this and said: "We can be in no doubt that plastic is wreaking havoc on our marine environment -- killing dolphins, choking turtles and degrading our most precious habitats. It is absolutely vital we act now to tackle this threat and curb the millions of plastic bottles a day that go unrecycled. We have already banned harmful microbeads and cut plastic bag use, and now we want to take action on plastic bottles to help clean up our oceans." [GOV]